But something called the Bi-State Bridge Coalition wants the world to know it is ready to begin work anew on one or more new bridges connecting Portland to Clark County, Wash. The group met for the first time Wednesday, barely three months after the final collapse of the Columbia River Crossing, the ill-fated plan to replace the I-5 bridges linking Portland and Vancouver.

What the coalition does have in abundance is political chutzpah. The group is led by Clark County Republicans who played a central role in killing off the CRC.

State Sen. Ann Rivers, R-LaCenter, and State Rep. Liz Pike, R-Vancouver, head the coalition. Their fierce opposition to the CRC's light rail component convinced Washington Senate leaders to withdraw their support. That forced Washington to withdraw as Oregon's 50-50 partner.

"We believe it's time to move past the CRC, leave behind components such as light rail that doomed that project, and focus on newer, comprehensive transportation solutions between Southwest Washington and the Portland metro area," Rivers said in a press release issued by Washington and Oregon Republicans.

The prospect of making nice with Rivers and other CRC opponents is not easy for Oregon lawmakers who fought for the new bridge for years. To them, the coalition feels as much like Republicans seeking political cover as it does a legitimate effort to revive a bridge.

"I think that's probably true," said Rep. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield. "They kept on saying they want to start over, with everyone on the same page. My comment was, we did that in 1995."

Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, another CRC stalwart, also attended Wednesday's meeting in Vancouver. "I don't see a lot of reality to it," he said of the coalition's plan to revive a bridge project.

Washington State Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, also attended the meeting and said she was disappointed at the result. "I went away feeling very discouraged," she said. "There's not even agreement on whether our central goal should be replacing the antiquated I-5 bridges. There were so many third bridges discussed yesterday, I lost count."

Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, was the only Oregon lawmaker listed as one of the organizers of the new coalition with Rivers and Pike. He said he wasn't surprised at the level of skepticism and distrust between the lawmakers.

"As I said in the press release, before we get to the bridge, there's lots of rebuilding to be done of relationships between the states," Huffman said.

No one from the Oregon or the Washington departments of transportation attended the coalition's inaugural meeting. Neither did anyone from the federal transportation agencies that had tentatively agreed to put up two-thirds of the estimated $2.8 billion CRC price tag.

After more than a decade of work and nearly $200 million worth of planning, forecasting and preliminary engineering, Washington's withdrawal from the project turned out to be a fatal blow.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber attempted to salvage a downsized CRC, which despite numerous missteps still enjoyed the support of all of the state's major business and labor groups. But the financial risks of an Oregon-only plan proved too much for state lawmakers to stomach. They declined to reauthorize the project in the short legislative session ended in March.

Beyer and Read said they're willing to meet again with the coalition, but first they want a proposal on the table from the group's leaders.